


Things We See in Sleep

by theboardwalkbody



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 20:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7947295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theboardwalkbody/pseuds/theboardwalkbody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fiore, as an angel, inherently has pleasant dreams, until the one night he doesn't. DeBlanc, as a demon, inherently has nightmares, until the one night he doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things We See in Sleep

Fiore found himself standing in a large field surrounded by an uncountable number of different flowers. It was peaceful here in this field of flowers and he felt calm and content. He began walking slowly through the field, taking care not to tread on any of the precious flowers or their buds, but none seemed to be directly in his way. It was almost as if he was on a path big enough for him to pass through without causing harm to the delicate things surrounding him, though this path was not evident to his eyes. As he walked he noticed that all the blooms around him were perfect and healthy, unmarred by the corruption of age or time, untouched by the praying mouths of bugs, unharmed by disease. Their beauty and perfection pleased him. 

The sun was shining bright overhead, not a cloud in sight, and Fiore was feeling tired from walking so long. He decided to stop and lay down for a moment. As he laid down it almost seemed as if the small flowers beneath him turned instead into grass to avoid being crushed by him. Surrounding his tall frame the flowers sprung about him, outlining him in a colorful array of different shaped and sized petals. A crown of flowers gently surrounded his head like a halo. 

In the serenity Fiore closed his eyes and smiled, enjoying the true peace the field of flowers was offering him.

\---------------

Promotions in his line of work were always few and far between. Rumor had it that the last time an angel in his field had gotten a promotion was back before the age of humans on Earth and even then the promotion had only come about because the angel who held the position formerly had been killed by a demon during the War. So when Fiore headed in for his shift and was met by his superior with the news that he, Fiore, had just been promoted to the new Head of Department he was full of nothing but sinful pride. Doing his best to hide his euphoria he turned away from the angel before him and went back to his tiny little office to begin packing his things to move into a new, bigger office.

His mind swirled with all the things he planned on doing with his new title and position. He thought of the new schedule he would construct to make production smoother and more abundant; about the new set of rules he was going to impose not only because he could, but because he firmly believed they were for the best; he thought about all the new things the department could make now that he was able to have an entire team of angels at his disposal to execute his new ideas without having to get them approved (which never happened with the old Head of Department). Smiling, Fiore packed his few things. He couldn't wait to set the first of his changes into motion.

\----------------

Maybe Earth wasn't so bad, he began to think, looking around at the landscape. Sure, he'd seen it from Heaven, but being there made it look completely different. It had a feel, a smell, a sense about it that just couldn't be understood from so far away on such a removed plane of existence. The task he was assigned with may have been less than desirable at first but that, too, was growing on him. DeBlanc wasn't so bad, Earth was turning out not to be so bad, and even Genesis had it's moments of not being a total inconvenience, sometimes it was kind of cute, though he hated to admit it.

DeBlanc had insisted on a trip here. Fiore had the Higher Up's approve a day-trip to Earth by reiterating what DeBlanc had said to convince him, "it'll be educational! It could teach him that the Earth is beautiful and that he should appreciate all that went into it's creation." 

Fiore wanted to counter that the Earth was also full of corruption and hate but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to make his point. Instead he listened to the demon praise the beauty of Earth and called in the trip. Now that he was here, DeBlanc on his side holding on to Genesis, he was glad he had kept his mouth shut. 

Never having been to Earth before he followed DeBlanc's lead. The demon had spent quite a number of years here, possessing the bodies of various humans and carrying out horrible deeds, but it had allowed him to see things Fiore had never before seen up close or out of theory. DeBlanc led him to a place teeming with people of all ages; elderly people were slowly moving around from place to place or else sitting on a bench alongside of fences; young adults milled about at a steady pace chattering non-stop with those who accompanied them; children ran around, most yelling with excitement, as their tired parents chased after them or tried to get their attention refocused on something else. 

"Where are we?" Fiore asked, not liking how many humans were around.  
"It's called a zoo. They've got dozens of different wild animals here," DeBlanc explained.   
"It's noisy," Fiore grunted.  
"Oh, stop, Genesis will love it. There's birds and reptiles and I think this one may have a rhino," DeBlanc said, more to Genesis than Fiore.

Fiore did his best to picture a rhino in his mind. He'd only heard them spoken about before, animals weren't his department, but from what he could remember said about them they didn't seem too impressive. 

"Okay, well let's be quick," he muttered.

Quick wasn't in DeBlanc's vocabulary it seemed as they ended up taking four hours to tour through the entire zoo. Fiore was irritated from the clamor of the humans surrounding him and just wanted to get back to the peace and quite of Heaven. 

"Have we seen it all, yet?" he asked.  
"Almost, there's just one more thing," DeBlanc smiled.

Fiore sighed. At least they would leave soon, he thought, once they've seen this one last thing. Genesis seemed to genuinely be enjoying their visit, as well, which was also something. Fiore would never admit it out loud but he was glad to see the little being enjoying something that, if you were to take away the loud humans, would actually be pretty nice. 

"Alright, there it is! Look Genesis, it's a rhino!" DeBlanc said as he stopped and pointed Genesis at the rhino so it could see. 

Fiore was floored. When the other angels had told him about the rhino's they had made they sounded small. Like lumpy, walking rocks with four legs, he had thought. The rhino before him was nothing but impressive. It was huge; less like a rock and more like a group of boulders, and it looked strong and forceful. And yet, despite it's size and strength, it was calm and seemed to not care at all for the group of humans - and Genesis, DeBlanc, and himself - standing only several feet from it separated just by a large fence. The rhino went about it's daily routine and grazed on some plants. 

They left shortly after but Fiore couldn't stop thinking about the rhino for long after and how it impressed not only him, but how it seemed to have brought joy to Genesis and DeBlanc as well.

\--------------

He had left the motel room for only a second. He'd run out of Cheeto's and needed more so he had only stepped out to the machine outside that dispensed them and got as many as it had left and went straight back to the room. But something had happened. Something very bad. When he opened the door he saw that the room had been trashed. The bed sheets were strewn across the floor, the lamps had been knocked over, blood spatter was everywhere and all their belongings were tossed around the room. DeBlanc was nowhere to be seen and Genesis's domicile was missing. 

Fiore dropped the armful of snack-sized Cheeto bags and stepped on a couple of them as he walked into the room to figure out what had happened. "DeBlanc!?" he called out, but there was no answer.

He ran across the room into the tiny bathroom, but DeBlanc wasn't there, either. He shut and reopened the shower curtain several times, just incase he would suddenly show up behind it anyway. He ran out back into the main room and checked the closet; he checked under the bed, he even lifted up the blankets off the floor to check underneath them. Frantic, he ran out to the truck, passed the vending machine he'd been standing at, and checked inside the vehicle. No DeBlanc. He checked the lot of the motel and almost started banging on the other doors and checking all the other rooms. 

'No, DeBlanc would come back to our room. He wouldn't go somewhere else,' he rationalized, and headed back to their room. 'Maybe he hasn't reinvigorated yet.'

Fiore picked up the blankets and re-made the beds, he fixed the lighting fixtures and even put away their belongings. DeBlanc still hadn't shown up by the time he was finished so he sat on the end of DeBlanc's bed and waited. What felt like hours and hours passed and still DeBlanc had not shown up. Fiore couldn't keep himself calm any longer, this was too long, DeBlanc should have come back by now. He all but destroyed the room himself as he rechecked and triple checked the places he already knew DeBlanc was not. 

He collapsed to his knees in anguish and buried his face in his hands. He sobbed.

'Gone,' he thought, 'he's gone. He's gone. He's gone.' 

The words repeated themselves in his mind to the point where he was almost sick from them.

Fiore moved his hands from his face so he could wipe away the wetness with his sleeve. As he did, he caught a glimpse of one of the forgotten bags of Cheetos in the doorway. With a sudden burst of energy he sprung up from the floor and practically charged across the room. He kicked the bags out of his way when he reached the entryway and stormed out of the room to the vending machine. When he reached it he stopped and kicked it, as hard as he could. 

Fiore lashed out at the tall, rectangular machine, kicking and shaking it, and yelled. He found himself blaming it. "If you had never given me those things I wouldn't have wanted more. If I didn't want more I wouldn't have left. If I hadn't have left DeBlanc would still be here!" 

The machine was unfazed by Fiore's attack, there wasn't even a single dent in the plastic when Fiore had worn himself out. Exhausted and hopeless Fiore gave up and, with his back pressed against the vending machine, slid down to the ground. He rested his head back against the machine, which was now lit up as it had grown dark, and let the tears fall down his face.


End file.
